ENERGY: Energy efficiency program enrolls 1,000th customer

Lawrance Inc.,
the Encinitas-based furniture seller, is poised to save $800 per month thanks to more efficient lighting the company installed.

Dixieline ProBuild, the national building supply chain with nine locations in San Diego County, will save thousands a month on its nine area stores thanks to its own energy efficiency improvements.

Both companies participated in San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s "on-bill" repayment program for businesses, under which SDG&E pays the cost of some energy efficiency improvements and lets companies repay them on electric bills. The utility said Wednesday it had added its 1,000th small business customer to the program.

"We pioneered on-bill financing in 2007, and today, it is a model for California's other major utilities as well as those in other states," Ted Reguly, SDG&E's director of customer programs and assistance, said in a prepared statement.

Under the program, business customers looking to make their operations more energy efficient can ask SDG&E to finance their improvements. The utility pays off some of the costs of adding an improved air conditioner or installing better lightbulbs. The customer repays the utility on its bills over time as a no-interest loan. The payments are structured so that they're never more than what the company saves in lower electric bills.

For a furniture company such as Lawrance, with its two big showrooms in the county, lighting represents more than half of its energy bill. The company used halogen bulbs for years, despite their high power consumption and the amount of heat they radiate.

"The quality of lights is really important for us," said Howard Hamisohn, the company's president. "It's quality first, over efficiency and cost."

Hamisohn heard about light-emitting diodes two years ago. He liked them, but they were pricey: At the time, they went for $55 each, and he needed 400 of them.

"I checked with SDG&E prior to this on my own and they did not have bulbs available for any of their rebates or programs," he said. "You hear around the country, you sit and wait for the program. I didn't have to wait very long."

Working with an LED bulb salesman, Hamisohn got a subsidy to knock 20 percent off the cost, and then he financed the rest through SDG&E's on-bill program. The lights have been in place since April 2011, and he expects them to officially pay off next month. With a lifespan of 10 to 15 years, he'll be making money on the upgrade for a decade.

Dixieline ProBuild has been working with SDG&E for 25 years to improve their energy efficiency, according to Bob Koenig, a project specialist.

"We have progressively, as new technology has come out, jumped on the bandwagon, and worked with SDG&E to fund the improvements in energy consumption," he said.

The company has made regular improvements to its lighting, created a system of rotating air conditioning units, and fixed up its huge sawdust vacuum systems to slash costs. Koenig said the National City distribution center had reduced its monthly electric bill from $3,500 to $800. For many of these projects, the company used on-bill financing. Koenig said the company probably wouldn't have done many of these projects without the assistance from SDG&E.

"San Diego Gas and Electric is by far the leader in aggressively promoting energy reduction with funding," he said.